THE Countess of Chester Hospital has been named and shamed as one of Britain's worst hospitals where patients are most at risk of catching one of the most feared superbugs.

The Department of Health has pointed the finger at the Liverpool Road hospital as part of a more aggressive campaign to reduce hospital-acquired infections in England.

Huge differences were revealed in the prevalence of MRSA, an infection resistant to a frontline antibiotic, with some hospitals in Somerset and London experiencing rates seven times worse than in Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire.

The publication is one way in which the Government is trying to force hospitals to focus more attention on reducing infections in as many as 100,000 people a year. Of these, an estimated 5,000 die and the overall cost might be £1bn a year.

Ministers and officials admit that five years of trying to raise awareness has not brought the desired results.

They are planning to publish league tables for other types of infection so that patients can choose hospitals on infection control as well as surgical and medical success rates.

The MRSA tables, published at the weekend, show that the Countess was named one of acute NHS Trusts with the highest rates of MRSA per 1,000 bed days for 2002/03.

Conversely, Wirral Hospital (Arrowe Park) was named an acute NHS trust with one of the lowest rates of MRSA per 1,000 bed days for 2002/03.

The Department of Health says every NHS Trust must have a senior manager responsible for infection control, reporting directly to the chief executive and board.

Basic hygiene measures such as hand washing and disinfection will be re-emphasised and there is to be the minimum use of catheters, intravenous drips and other tubes. These might provide opportunities for bugs to develop in seriously ill patients.

The effects of MRSA were highlighted earlier this year when a coroner heard how 79-year-old war veteran Charles 'Tony' Trollope endured a catalogue of horrors at the Countess of Chester.

His ordeal started after he went into the hospital for a routine hip operation.

The op, in February 2001, was a success but shortly afterwards his thigh became infected and Mr Trollope was later found to have contracted the superbug MRSA. He died a year later, on February 9, 2002.

Mr Trollope's son Peter has since blasted the 'harrowing' treatment his father, from Hawthorn Road, Parkgate, had received at the Countess.

It included: Being barrier-nursed in a room that had congealed blood on the floor and a 'carpet of dust' under the bed Seeing nurses and other staff enter the isolated room without proper protective clothing and leave without washing their hands Being routinely left on his own with a wound that seeped through the bed covers onto the floor Suffering a heart attack that staff only realised the following evening Being given breakfast on the morning of an operation when he should have been nil-by-mouth Having to wait on a trolley in A&E for 15 hours when a bed could not be found for him Waiting three months for a biopsy a consultant said was a priority.

Deputy coroner of Cheshire, Dr Janet Napier, recorded a verdict that Mr Trollope died from complications resulting from the original operation.

After the inquest Peter Trollope said: 'If any good comes out of this the hospital might look at its actions here and learn from some of the mistakes that seem to have been made.'

Peter Walsh, chief executive of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents, says it is now down to hospitals to tackle MRSA.

He said: 'From what we hear, the infection is so widespread that many hospitals have become almost complacent or resigned to it.'

Countess spokeswoman Lorna Jones this week reacted to the Department of Health's findings.

In a statement, she said: 'The Trust is aggressively trying to bring down MRSA levels and since March, when the statistics were published, we have put a range of additional measures and actions in place to prevent such infections as much as possible.

'These include: organism (including MRSA) surveillance programmes; infection control audit programme; infection control educational programme for hospital staff; infection control lead nurses on each ward; alcohol gel dispensers are available on every bed; a hand hygiene group, is actively promoting good hand hygiene across the hospital.

'It should also be emphasised that the figures submitted by this Trust include people who acquired MRSA in the community before they were admitted to the Countess of Chester Hospital. The figures we have provided, therefore, are not just hospital acquired infections.'

She added: 'The Countess of Chester Hospital meets all national guidelines for the prevention and control of infection.

'Hospital cleanliness is also one of the key standards that the Trust is measured against in order to achieve three-star status and we have consistently achieved the Patient Environmental Action Team top level four standard.

'We monitor cleaning standards formally on a weekly and monthly basis with the contractor who provides this service. The matrons and infection control nurses are all members of the Cleanliness in Hospital group.'